Well, There Were Several Things. One Was

Well, Here You Had A City That Was Selling More Cars Than Ever Before, That Had This Wondrous Music Being Created, That Was So Vital To The Labor And Civil Rights Of This Country, And Yet It Was Dying And Didn't See It, Except For Some Sociologist At Wayne State University Who Predicted That Detroit Was Losing Population By A Half-million By The End Of That '60s Decade, And That That Trend Would Continue Taking Away Its Tax Base.

I Said That I'm Only There To Write The Truth, I'm Not Going To Cover Anything Up, But I'll Put Everything In Context And Get As Close To The Truth Of This Person As I Can.

It Seemed That I Could Tell The Whole Story Pretty Powerfully In Those 18 Months Between October Of '62 And The Spring Of '64 When They Were All At Their Peak. And Yet You Could See Some Of The Shadows Of Detroit's Demise Coming.

I Discovered In Writing The Biography Of Bill Clinton That It Is Actually Easier To Write A Biography Of Someone Who Is Dead. Although You Can't Interview Them, You Have A Fuller Perspective On Their Whole Life After They're Gone And People Are More Willing To Talk About Them.

So, I Mean, There's Still Vast Swaths Of The City That Are Suffering From A Lack Of Jobs And Poor Housing And Poor Public Schools, But They Are Building Momentum - You Know, Techies, Foodies, Artists, Musicians, All Coming To Detroit. So There Is This Vibrancy. You See It In The Newspapers Every Day - Some Story About The New Detroit.